Finally, what looks like the first footage of Pokémon Go

Pokmon Go is an in-development augmented reality smartphone app from the people behind the popular Google Ingress.

The Pokmon Company is yet to officially unveil any footage of it in action, but what appears to be the first gameplay has now been posted online.

A caveat – the footage was filmed off-screen, apparently at a SXSW Gaming festival talk over the weekend. John Hanke, boss of Pokmon Go and Ingress developer Niantic, was scheduled to speak at SXSW on the topic of AR games. So, while the footage has not been officially released, all signs point to it being legit.

The footage shows a user tracking down the Grass-type Pokmon Ivysaur in a real-life grassy area, then using a couple of different Pokballs to successfully capture him/her/it.

Pokmon GO is set to launch worldwide in 2016 for iPhone, iPad and Android devices.

You’ll have to hunt in appropriate environments for particular species – at the beach for Water-type Pokmon, in the mountains for Rock-types and hopefully inside active volcanoes for Fire breeds.

Additionally, different monsters will only be available in certain areas and in certain countries.

Ingress has gained itself a loyal fanbase using similar location-based technology to power its own gameplay. With the power of the Pokmon brand on board, it’ll be interesting to see how popular Pokmon GO becomes.

The app is being published by The Pokmon Company and is separate to Nintendo’s own mobile app line-up which begins launching this month via social game Miitomo.

Still, Pokmon GO will be part of the Pokmon franchise’s 20th anniversary year alongside the upcoming 3DS games Pokmon Sun and Moon.